Answer:
Serfdom, was a very unique and particular aspect of Russian lifestyle that did not come to an end until 1861, when the Emancipation Reform was passed bu Emperor Alexander II. Before then, the conditions that serfs had to suffer were almost as bad as that of slaves, elsewhere. In essence, a serf was a peasant who belonged, with the land where he/she worked, to a landlord. Unlike slaves, these peasants could not be moved, or transferred from the land where they worked, and they were literally the property of the landlord. Also, they always had to pay high taxes on the land they worked, and give at least half of what they produced, to their landlord. They had very little rights, no freedom whatsoever, and they were always under the control of the landlord, even when they wanted to marry. This all changed with the abolition act in 1861.
Given this background information, the correct answers to the question would be:
A) They had as few rights as slaves, with the added bonus that they were always entrapped in a land, while the slave was the direct property of the owner and had nothing to his/her name.
C) Their taxes were very high. Most of the land where the serfs worked belonged to the landlord and therefore, also, its produce. For the rest, the serfs had to pay high levies, and it was only what was produced on that small patch of land, that they could use.
D) Their living conditions had changed little since the days of Ivan the Terrible. During the time the system remained, there were very little changes, and those that were made, were only to benefit the lords, not the serfs. It was not until Alexander II of Russia abolished serfdom, that things really changed.
